The Enemy Within
by svufan001
Summary: The SVU team are on edge as one of their own has a missing child. Things get worse when people within the team start having accidents. It soon becomes a race against time as they try to find the the missing child and kidnapper before someone gets killed.


**The enemy within**

**15th january**

**The morgue**

Warner gently pulled back the white sheet covering a body that lay on her table. A young girl named Nina Clark lay there. It was the table that everyone hated, the table that everyone wished to never have to see a loved one lie across. Every time a family member came to identify a body they would break down. Warner had seen each one cry, she had witnessed strong, muscular men break down in tears when they had seen what lay beneath the sheet. Warner had learned very early on to control her emotions. She had dealt with so many body that she was able to disconnect her feels when she had to find a cause of death. There were a few cases that still brought her to tears, mainly those with a body of a child or baby.

She picked up the steal knife that was on her tray. She didn't glance at the victims face throughout the procedure as it seemed to help. She didn't think of the body as a person, more as remains that the victims spirit had left behind. Warner gentle cut across the stomach applying enough pressure to break the skin. Placing the knife back onto the table she notice something strange beneath the now broken skin. Although hard to see through the slight incision she had made she could see a glimpse of white. Warner had seen and found many strange things in her career so she wasn't at all surprised.

Carefully she inserted a finger to free the thing and to make sure it wasn't attached to any vital organs. She was curious but didn't want to damage anything as she still hadn't found a cause of death yet. She slowly began to pull the thing from the body after discovering it was free from damaging anything inside. It appeared to be a small piece of paper which had been folded several times. Using her tweezers she slowly began to unfold the paper.

The paper seemed to have been torn, mostly likely to make it small enough to fold into such a tiny square. The only possible way it could have entered the body would have been if the victim had swallowed the paper whilst they were alive but that would have meant the paper would be in the stomach not just below the surface of the skin.

On one side of the paper in bright red writing were the words 'got her'. Melinda thought the writing was well written considering how small the writing was. The letters were all angled to the right with a slight flick at the end of each. Turning over the piece of paper she saw a small image that caught her breath. Her hands began to shake and the blood drained from her face. She stared back at the paper, it was then that she noticed another word just below the image. It was then that she broke down, no longer in control of her emotions.

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><p>Captain Cragen walked out of his office to see his five detectives gathered around a table blocking whatever was there from view. They had always been hard works and never let him down apart from the few occasions he had to suspend one of them but that usually just Elliot and his temper. He slammed his down to alert them to his presence which gained a startled jump from Detective John Munch. The five Detectives grinned at their Captain before quickly trying to hide their donuts from his view. They hadn't found any leads to the Nina Clark case and honestly had nothing better to do.<p>

"You could at least offer me one if you're not going to bother to work today" Captain Cragen grumbled as he walked over to the box of donuts. The detectives had definitely been busy, only three remained out the dozen donuts that they had began with.

Guiltily the detectives all returned to their desk and pretended to be busy enough to satisfy their captain. Cragen however was not impressed.

"Is everyone trying to drive me back to drink or something today?" Cragen asked waiting for an answer which didn't come "Olivia where's the statements from Nina's family and friends?"

Olivia reached over and grabbed several pieces of paper on her strangely tidy desk. They had all finished up their paperwork and even had time to clean their desks. The current case wasn't going anywhere fast and they had all hit a dead end.

"All done" Olivia said handing the statements to Cragen.

"Forensics reports?" Cragen asked.

"No finger prints" John munch replied.

"No DNA or blood evidence" Chester Lake said.

"There's no cameras within the crime scene " Fin grumbled, he went to everyone store on the street and not one had a camera that worked. He thought he would have at least a couple of seconds film on the body being dumped on the high street but it seemed the killer was too smart for video evidence.

"So what exactly have we got?" Cragen looked at each detective in turn looking for a glimmer of hope. He felt slightly better that his detectives actually didn't have anything to do rather than just being lazy.

"We're still waiting for Warner's report but chances are there won't be anything their either" Munch complained and then stuffed the remaining piece of his donut into his mouth.

"We still haven't got the report?" Cragen asked surprised. Warner had always been on time with reports. She had even worked through the night on several occasions just to get things finished up for the detectives. Although none of them had ever told her, they all thought she was brilliant at her job. "Olivia, Elliot I want use two to go down and chase Warner on that report. Lake, Fin I want both of use two to canvas everyone within the area. That includes flats and shops that overlook the area. No one comes back until they get something." The four detectives all stood up and went to grab their coats to carry out the tasks while munch stood up and waited of his orders.

"Where do you want me Captain?"Munch asked hoping he could get out the office for a few hours, he spent far too long sitting in his chair with nothing to do.

"I want you to sweet talk the forensics lab, see if you can find a way to suggest they could have missed something" Cragen Informed him. He knew the lab wouldn't have but with this case they really needed something.

"And when Tracey kills me for making that suggestion?" Munch complained. He was grateful that there was something to do but knew how the lab would react.

"Well at least we'll have something to do" Lake joked. With a warning glance from the captain they all left to carry out their jobs.

Elliot drove himself and Olivia to the morgue to talk to Warner, the road was still a bit icy of the snow from the night before and he knew she hated driving in it. The ride over was quite, they both discussed various reasons why Warner was taking so long to finish up with the body. They both agreed that the best reason was she had found something really important for the case. Both of them knew that wouldn't be the real reason but it was the reason they both really wanted.

When they arrived at the morgue they noticed it was unusually quite, several cars were still in the car park but there wasn't anyone in sight.

"Where the hell is everyone?" Olivia asked as they walked through the corridor glancing in several room windows to see each one in turn empty.

"Maybe there on a lunch break" Elliot suggested, he glanced down at his watch to see it was just after half three. It was far too late for a lunch break. They walked to the bottom of the corridor and took the left turn to see something they hadn't expected. Half a dozen people were sat outside the door whispering to each other. Olivia and Elliot recognized them as people they had seen around the morgue doing various jobs.

"what's going on?" Elliot asked flashing his badge. The people gathered around the door didn't seem at all surprised to see them there.

"We're not sure, Melinda's supposed to be in their but she's not answering and the doors locked" one of the men with jet black hair explained moving aside for Elliot and Olivia to get to the door.

"maybe she's gone out?" Olivia replied feeling like she was stating the obvious.

"Its locked from the inside, there has to be someone inside" the man with the black hair replied. Elliot took one look at Olivia to know what he had to do. Olivia nodded and ushered the people away from the door. Elliot took a slight run at the door and slammed his left shoulder hard against the door. The shook from the force but didn't open, Elliot took a few steps back and slammed his shoulder into the door again. This time the force was enough to break the doors lock to open the door. Elliot Grabbed his gun from its holster and carefully walked inside, Olivia ran found following carrying her own.

Whatever Olivia and Elliot had expected it definitely wasn't this. Melinda was sat on the floor with her knees up, she had her head resting in between her knees and there was a black line down her lab coat from where her mascara had ran. Her gloved hands were shaking as they held a small piece of paper. Olivia and Elliot quickly put their gun away after a quick glance around the room.

"Melinda!" Olivia shouted in surprise, she rushed over and put an arm around her friend in comfort.

"What's happened?" Elliot asked crouching down in front of her. Some the workers were leaning into the room trying to catch a glimpse at what was happening. Melinda lifted her head up to stare at Elliot as she held out the piece of paper. Elliot carefully took it noticing how sticky it was.

"What's it say?" Olivia asked confused.

"Got her...Melinda" Elliot said flipping over the piece of paper "theres a picture or little girl". Elliot held the image up to show Olivia the picture.

"Oh no, Melinda is that Gracie?" Olivia asked as she stared at the beautiful like girl in the image with her black hair in bunches.

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><p><strong><span>please review!<span>**


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